10/16/07
Roswell, NM
Town & Country RV Park
Odometer Reading: 12599.1
We found a very nice campground in Roswell about 4 miles outside of town. To our surprise Roswell is big city wit
h 50,000 residents. Very congested with a main road like Route 44 at home.We had a nice dinner, walked and sat outside and enjoyed the great weather. We were very tired so we hit the sack around 8:30 PM. To our surprise we slept through to around 7 AM. Feeling refreshed we planned our day.
First stop was the Roswell UFO Museum in downtown Roswell.
If you didn’t believe there was a cover-up when the Roswell Incident occurred you would after spending time at the museum. It was interesting to read the affidavits of the many people who witnessed the crash of a UFO and the aftermath of the crash.
Of interest was that the farmer whose land the UFO had crashed on recanted his story, bought a new truck and left town to open a new business. The locals found this odd because he was very poor and had no money. People in Roswell believed he was paid by the US government to keep quiet. 
The US government disputed their claims stating that it was a weather balloon not a UFO that crashed. We thought it to be highly suspicious that many high-ranking
government and military officials including the Secretary of War would spend so much time in Roswell eradicating evidence if was only a weather balloon. Sure does make one wonder!!Then it was on to Walmart for grocery shopping. The front of Walmart has an alien and spaceship painted on it. The overall theme of Roswell is UFO related.
The street lamps have black alien eyes painted on them. I guess that’s not much of a surprise.Next stop was the Roswell Museum and Art Center.
The art center was set up beautifully but most of the art was abstract, not our thing.What we were interested in was the Robert Hutchings Goddard exhibit. Dr. Goddard was born and raised in MA and graduated from Clark College, in Worcester with a Master’s in engineering and physics. His dream was to essentially find a way to get off the planet. His experiments with gunpowder and simple tests led him to the realization that a properly constructed rocket was probably capable of space travel. His preliminary studies led to large grants from the Smithsonian Institution and the U.S. Army in 1917 – Yes! 1917.
Dr. Goddard had difficulties getting his rockets to function properly but after many failures and attempts he launched his first successful liquid propellant rocket on March 16, 1926 in Auburn, MA. The rocket soared forty-one feet from the tower. Unfortunately he set the woods on fire and frightened his neighbors with his rockets. The bad press drew the attention of Charles Lindberg, who was also interested in the potential for rocket travel.
Funding arranged by Lindberg and from Daniel and Florence Guggenheim Foundation made it possible for Dr. Goddard to work on his rocketry
full time and on a larger scale. Since Worcester was not the ideal place to test rockets the entire project was moved to Roswell, NM where there was vast open spaces and a temperate climate.Due to his diligence and dream Dr. Goddard made great advances in rocket technology including launch control, recovery and tracking all of which is used today.
Most people think of German- born Werner von Braum, US. Rocket maven as the father of rocket science when, in fact, it was our very own American-born Dr. Goddard.
If not for his widow’s diligence in bringing details of his work to the public eye, Dr. Goddard would have been forgotten for his work.
Dr. Goddard was awarded two hundred fourteen patents on rocketry- more then ¾ of them posthumously.
Factoid: In 1960, the armed forces and NASA paid one million dollars for prior infringement and continued use of Dr. Goddard’s ideas.
In 1962 Mrs. Goddard accepted a Congressional Medal in his memory, validating the important role he played in the history of Rocket technology.
This concludes today’s history lesson.
We are heading to Carlsbad Caverns for some cave exploration in the morning.
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